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Sunday, 10 June 2012

Interview with Martin Compston (Line of Duty)

Interview
with Martin Compston (DS Steve Arnott)

Line of Duty
- A hard-hitting new thriller series explores the world of police corruption

DS
Steve Arnott was a high-flying counter-terrorism officer who refused to collude
with his colleagues in the cover-up of the shooting of an innocent man. He
finds himself seconded to Anti-Corruption, much to his displeasure.

Who
is Steve Arnott?Steve is a
counter-terrorist copper and at the very start of the series he’s on an
operation which unfortunately goes wrong. This leads to him being in a tribunal
about the operation going wrong and puts Steve against the rest of his team who
were involved and who are trying to cover up the situation. This then leads to
him not being demoted as such, but transferred to anti-corruption while he’s
waiting on the tribunal. He doesn’t take the AC-12 job very seriously at first,
he sees it as something for pencil-pushers - he doesn’t really believe in
investigating other cops, he thinks they should be out there chasing bad guys,
but he gradually learns that actually the people he’s chasing are worth taking
down. He’s chasing Detective Gates, a kind of super-cop; he beats up bad guys.
But Steve, bit by bit learns that all is not what is as seems with him, and he
goes on this mad kind of adventure to discover the truth.

How
did you find working with Lennie and what is the relationship like between your
characters?The
relationship between the two characters is really frosty, right from the
off-set. Anti-corruption officers are not the most popular people, and
obviously Gates is a very popular cop and so you see Steve as sort of an
outcast right from the off - but working with Lennie was immense. He is a
brilliant actor and has been one of those standout actors in British TV and
cinemas for over ten years. It was great watching him doing stuff because it
was a great part that Jed’s written. Lennie’s just then taken it to the next
level so I’m really excited to see it unfold.

You
are known for films such as ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ and ‘Sweet
Sixteen’ - what attracted you to this television role? I thought it
was brilliantly written, that’s what attracted me to the role. But you’re very
right in saying I made my name and living out of film so it was nice to get the
part. I don’t actually ever think people think of me as leading a big TV show
and the funny thing is when I got the call about the audition, I actually put
forward three of my friends for the part. I got a call from my agent saying
‘why the hell do you keep putting people up for this role? They think you’re
not interested!’ I thought it couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s just the
fact I thought it was so good that I wanted it to be the best. So, I nearly
shot myself in the foot with but thankfully they stuck with me and they gave me
the job.

What
was the audition process like? I only had
one audition and I tend to throw myself into the role of anything I’m doing.
Especially because I have an accent and I never come out of the accent when I’m
working. I was doing a another job at the time in a different accent and it was
quite a dark film so I didn’t really have time to go through all the scripts in
depth, which was maybe a good thing, because if I knew the scope of this thing
I’d have been a little bit more nervous.

Talking
about accents, you’re Scottish but you don’t play Scottish detective. How did
you find doing the English accent?Well the
part was written for a Londoner, so it wasn’t a conscious thing. I’m sure they
would have let me probably stay Scottish but the part was written for a
Londoner and it is my job to just make that happen. It can be quite full on
because, as I said, I don’t come out of the accent, so I mean living for three
months as an Englishman can after a while start to mess with your head a wee
bit! But I find scripts can change a fair bit and so you have to learn to adapt
very quickly so you have to have the accent at your beck and call. We had a
couple great dialect coaches working with us but you couldn’t really have them
at your side full time, so you have to learn to do things by yourself and it’s
good in some ways as although it can get a bit stressed, at the same time, it
can help you find the character a bit more. You find a change in yourself with
an accent. For some reason I feel a bit like a smart arse when I talk in a
middle-English, middle-London accent! It made some of my mumbo-jumbo police
talk a bit easier to say for some reason…

Police
drama is something that we’ve seen on British TV screens for quite a few years.
Why is this different? Jed’s
written a fantastic script which is genuinely exciting and it’s clever. I also
think the cast they pulled together is great. One of the big things for me was
when I heard Vicky McClure would be playing one of the other leading roles.
When I heard that going into the audition, I knew it was something I wanted to
do. She’s possibly the best young actress in Britain at the moment so it was a
joy to work with her. And obviously we also got Gina McKee, Adrian Dunbar,
Lennie James and Craig Parkinson – who is one of my best friends – plus Neil
Morrissey. It was a cracking cast, we had a blast, and we were all same when it
came to an end, we were all just a bit sad. It was genuinely the most fun I had
on a job in years. We became so close altogether. We became a gang and we’ve
all kept in touch as had a great time on it.

Did
you base your character on anyone?No, not
particularly. It just came out very fresh. Gates is a fantastic part that
Lennie’s got to play. And Lennie is electrifying in it. Gates is a fun part to
play, while Steve’s sort of holding the whole piece together and you’re getting
a lot of information through him - which you have to be conscious of while
playing it. Not making Arnott repetitive or dull. I had to inject into him a
bit of life. He’s constantly on a downer with the tribunal and he’s got
someone’s death in his conscience right from the off. He has that cloud is
hanging over him the whole time so you have to try to not make him one
dimensional. It was hard but I enjoyed it.

Were
you aware of the anti-corruption units within the police force before working
on the show?I was aware
of it in American versions - internal affairs - and there’s always stuff going
on in the media about how much red tape police officers have to go though. The
things that people are doing within the police force are technically illegal,
but at this time you can see why they are doing it. They’re under so much
pressure; they are trying to hit targets and so they’re just bending the rules,
as you would say, to get the job done and cut through all the red tape.

Did
you do much research before taking on the role? A lot of
people are saying ‘how much research did you do?’ and I’d came straight off
another job so I didn’t have tonnes of time to do much, but Jed just knew
everything so anything I needed I just went straight to Jed. He knew everything
inside out and is very clever. He never lost his patience with anything. We
spent hours talking about things and there was always time, especially in
rehearsals. He was very generous with his time.

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